No photos on todays blog, just a report on last nights Wildlife Trust talk in the village hall that I had arranged. The speaker was David Hethrington, an ecologist & author of a book on the reintroduction of Lynx to Scotland. The book is called The Lynx & Us, which was naturally the title of the talk, an interesting book with some wonderful photographs of Lynx in many areas of Europe. With facts & figures to back up the argument for their reintroduction.
A record attendance for a local branch talk with over 80 people attending, many coming for the first time & fairly anti attitude, but I must say that David put over such a convincing argument for them that many went away now converted, or at least with a different attitude towards Lynx.
The fear that they would dine on the many sheep we have up here was proven not to be true as their main prey was Roe Deer, which up here are very common. Lynx tend to live in woodland areas & though in some European countries it is normal for sheep to be in woods, ours tend to be out in the open on moorland or fields. Pheasants were another concern as shooting game birds is a huge part of the rural economy, but this was also been debunked by a leading person in Europe who has been studying their behaviour for years.
When it came to questions at the end of the talk I thought (as we are a rural farming community) that David would get a hard time, but no, he answered the questions well & without anyone going totally against what he had said. I do not think I will see or hear of Lynx in Glen Tilt or Glen Fender in my lifetime, if a book like this & an enthusiastic speaker like David can win over the sceptics. Then who knows, maybe one day.